Your Preemie Baby

Are you going to have a preemie baby, or have you just given birth to one? Are you concerned about your preemie's development? How to breastfeeding such a tiny little thing, or should you be going for a formula milk instead? Any extra thing that you need to keep in mind while taking care of a preterm baby?

If any of these questions bother you, this article is for you.

What is a Preemie Baby?

Babies delivered before 37 weeks of pregnancy are referred to as premature babies (also known as a preterm baby, or simply preemie). A 26 weeks old baby has an 80% chance, while a 27 week old baby has a probability of 90% to survive (to make it to his first birthday).

Preemie Development

The baby development stages for these early-birds are different, and rightly so. They were in a rush to come into this world missing out a few weeks of development, so they have some catching up to do. And once the right care and feed is given to them, they are as healthy and active as a full term.

We have an article on Preemie Development that answers a lot of questions that could be boggling your mind.

How to Breastfeed a Premature Baby?

Breastfeeding can sometimes be a task for a normal full-term baby, so how will your preterm baby learn to latch on? How early can you start, how exactly to breastfeed, and what to do if you encounter problems? What to do if you are short on supply, and how to stay motivated in this process that feels impossible at the beginning but very natural as time passes?

To know all this and more, dig into our article on How to Breastfeed Premature Babies.

Bottle-feeding Premature Babies

Preemie development needs extra nutrition to bridge the full-term gap. How do you decide on the best baby formula for your tiny bundle of joy? Take help from our article on choosing the right infant formula for your preemie baby.

Premature Baby Clothes

Preemie baby clothes are now easily available in many clothing shops with the size labelled as "Preemie" (just like they have for "Newborn", "3 months", and "6 months", etc.). The Preemie clothing size normally caters to 18" (46 cm) and is generally for babies up to 5 lbs.

Things you need to know

From a 27 week old baby to a baby born at 37 weeks, check out our article on things you need to keep in mind for premature newborn babies.

If your doctor suspects that due to any medical complication you could end up popping out a baby born at 37 weeks or even earlier, you need to make sure you are mentally and physically ready. It is quite natural to be overwhelmed at times.

A preemie baby is quite delicate, but having one proves that s/he is a survivor and have a super-strong will to overcome all the hurdles. You have a super-baby at home :)

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